Hannah’s got a brand-new wig

HANNAH MONTANA: 3.01 “He Ain’t a Hottie, He’s My Brother”

Hannah Montana’s got a brand-new wig. And waredrobe. And theme song.

Tonight, Disney Channel aired a new episode of Hannah Montana. IMDB lists this episode as episode 8 for the third season (and has a different title name), but it looks like it’s the first one of the new season aired. Maybe the second, since I think there was a new episode last week (maybe). Sorry, I didn’t see it.

Anyway, this episode revolves around the idea that Lilly (who has transformed into a supermodel, by the way–can I have her hair?) liking Jackson (also, decent hair). Miley asks Jackson whether he likes her back, to which he says sure, and then she lies to both of them, telling them that neither likes the other and making them angry.

Now, lately I’ve been noticing something with the new Hannah Montana episodes: The more famous Miley Cyrus gets, the worse her acting gets. She needs to enroll herself in OAA, Over-Acting Anonymous. This started in season 2 (especially in the episode with her sleepwalking, ouch!), but it’s just progressed. If you compare episodes from season 1 to seasons 2 and 3, you’ll see a difference in facial expressions that are just over-the-top, and that’s just one aspect.

So this episode was laden with overacting. Not only did Miley do some damage, but so did everyone else–though Lilly and Jackson’s over-emotional exits were for comedic reasons, not just because of lack of skills.

Rico was missing in this episode, which was nice. However, a new addition to this episode was Hannah Montana’s new hair. I realize that if a pop star were to go years on end without changing her hair, people would find it odd, but with the new haircut and–I guess thsoe are waves?–she looks…trashy. She looks like they half dried her hair and just let the rest hang there damp…after being hit by a truck. She doesn’t look like a trend-setter in any case (and that outfit she was wearing didn’t help).

The new intro is interesting. Same song, just revamped and remixed. Much flashier with the clips. Take a look around and see if you can find it. Someone might’ve posted it somewhere.

I guess we can see that Hannah Montana–character and show–are growing up. There are previews of Miley driving. We almost had an on-screen kiss with Lilly and Jackson. And hell, Miley spent half the episode in a bikini top with a loose tank top over it, making her just a little more sexy than Disney’s accostomed to. (To be honest, at first I didn’t see the bikini top, and I was really worried about what the kids were seeing.)

Right now, I just want it to be better. Miley, tone it down. You had some entertaining value, but tonight, it was just lacking.

Oh, and where were the one-liners? Don’t you remember those, writers? I liked those.

I found the gateway

LIFE ON MARS: 1.04 “Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadows”

So this episode was…how should I describe it? There were corrupt club owners/loan sharks. There were corrupt cops (as usual). There was Jim Croce. And of course, sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll.

Most of all, there was Sam’s mom. Now, I’ve heard that we’re still following the British version of the show pretty much step by step here, so this isn’t new for the series. But I’m still surprised we’ve brought in Sam’s family so early. I guess we’re to assume that Sam’s purpose is to set his mother straight after all these years?

How heartbreaking! To know all your parents’ flaws when your memory of childhood was so–flawless. Well, until Sam’s father leaves, that is. But his mother never had any flaws that we knew of…till now.

But I feel like that’s a lame answer: Sam’s in 1973 to help his mom. There’s got to be more than that.

The question is whether Sam was there the entire time–in his past, too. We noticed that her crying scene in the end was the same as what Sam remembered. Does that mean 2008 Sam was there, preventing his mother from prostitution, in his own memory without his knowing it? Or does his changing history really not make too much of a difference? She would be crying either way, based on what she did or didn’t do. Maybe he wasn’t there afterall.

I’m personally still wondering what’s brought him here. He mentioned in this episode the idea of alternate dimensions (when he mentioned the physics book in his apartment), which reminded me of Sliders. Now, from what I know of alternate dimensions, the time is the same, wherever you are. (“Same planet, different dimesions–I found the gateway!”)

But Sliders, in its third season, showed a loophole. In “The Guardian,” Quinn and his fellow sliders find themselves in the late 1970s or early 1980s–breaking the bounds of the idea of alternate dimensions. It SHOULD BE the same year as when they slid, in this case, the 1990s. But here’s the trick: In this reality, time moves slightly slower so it’s technically the same time, but an earlier year.

Why do I bring this up? In this alternate reality, Quinn was able to meet and help his younger self, preventing a traumatic experience.

Are we finding similarities now? Sam and young Sam–can they meet? Generally, you’d think that if you met yourself in the past, the world might implode. Heck, if you change ANYTHING about your past, you might find yourself disappearing, like in Back to the Future (or even one episode of Hannah Montana).

If we can find the loophole, maybe he’s just changing some other kid’s life. Some other kid who grew up just like himself.

This is all just speculation, and of course, we wouldn’t know if any of this is possible or true until we see if Sam meets himself. We know he’s seen himself, but his younger self hasn’t seen him yet.

But let’s move backwards. If it is an alternate dimension, then why is he there? We haven’t quite gotten an answer, and if he’s not changing his own past, why would it matter if he’s changing someone else’s on another dimension?

In the end, we’re still looking for answers. But to me, it’s awesome to have the opportunity to related today’s new shows to a favorite like Sliders (well, seasons 1 and 2 anyway). And it’s awesome to go back to wondering at the end of every episode.

So what do you think? Honestly, I wonder if alternate dimension is too far-fetched, but it’s fun to think about.

Back to the classics

30 ROCK: 3.01 “Do-Over”

I really enjoyed this episode of 30 Rock, and I hear that even though they put the episode online a week early, ratings weren’t low. Fantastic.

30 Rock is one of those shows that I really ignored when it first aired–and I shouldn’t have done that. It tends to be one of those shows, though, that people still tend to ignore. But with Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin, it’s really one that stands out above the crowd!

So we found out last season that Liz Lemon really wants a baby. We’re continuing this, as she’s being interviewed for adoption. Unlike all TV dramas out there, they actually took a realistic approach and showed Liz struggling for this. Ok, it was realistic up until the nunchucks. I’d say that’s fair.

What was fantastic about this episode was that they took a classic comedic element and reinvented it–well, reused it. But because it hasn’t been used since the days of Bugs Bunny, it was fresh and new!

Megan Mullally guest starred as Bev, Liz’ adoption counsellor. She had a very negative opinion of the atmosphere Liz’ child would be raised in–until she got knocked around a few times and lost her short-term memory. Enter DO-OVER!

And everything goes sparklingly beautifully, until she forgets it all again. Seriously, it was a classic, served up fresh with nice, golden nunchucks.

In the meantime, Jack needed to get back in the fancy office. How much did I love seeing him get promoted from mail room staff to head of mail services, all in about 11 hours? Hilarious. His estimates of when he would get back on top were just great.

And I must say, Kathy Geiss is hilarious, though she was making me feel so sorry for her from time to time. Just the way she dove for that Soap Opera Digest made my heart break. But it all ended happily when she saw her soap opera come true–even if it didn’t end in  Liz/Jack kiss. And that’d be…weird.

So good episode. To be honest, I was surprised they didn’t choose to air the episode where Oprah guests as the season premiere, since they’ve been advertising it like mad, but I think it turned out well. I’m looking forward to next week for more comedic craziness.